Solar Energy Task Progress Report for 1975/76: Evaluation of Solar Energy Options

Solar options are evaluated as a potential source for meeting future energy supply requirements. Emphasis is on contemporary concepts in the solar-thermal and photovoltaic systems and their space, as well as economic constraints. The range of uncertainties during this formative stage of solar technology is shown in typical examples of performance and cost estimates. The broad spectrum of assessed information is synthesized and condensed for general information as an interim report. The fundamental trends of the continuing efforts in the subject field are identified

Solar Options in Central Europe. A Synthesis of Solar Technology. Assessment and Contemporary Criteria in 1978-1979

Evaluation of solar energy as a potential substitute for fossil fuels and identification of the time phase in which solar technology may become a significant part of the energy supply mix are constrained by the characteristic uncertainties of solar energy inputs, the developmental status of solar technology, and the evolution of other energy supply alternatives. The numerous variables within the spectrum of attainable solar energy conversion performance allow a variety of approaches to the assessment of its utility. This interim effort identified the options that are now (1978-1979) most viable for solar energy exploitation in Central Europe, and the economic, as well as technical parameters of these options. In spite of the large number of contemporary concepts for the use of solar energy, a correlation with prototype data was made wherever possible to maximize the usefulness of the results. Nevertheless, the rapidly advancing research and development in solar technology, and the possibilities of significant breakthroughs in energy conversion and storage, necessitate the qualification "interim study" as an overall descriptor for this work

Economics of Solar Systems

Large scale solar energy conversion for a variety of residential, agricultural and industrial uses may emerge as a significant part of future energy supply mix on a global scale. The timing for reaching such potential depends upon the management of solar technology, the economics of the various solar options, and upon the organization of their diffusion in the productive areas of their integration as a viable energy source. The contemporary management of solar technology is often too fragmented and/or departmentalized, allowing a large variety of concepts to enter the market prior to sensible standardization and quality control measures. Retrofit installations to existing buildings are receiving primary attention, although the fully integrated energy supply systems will offer decisively better performance and economy. In fact, several preliminary studies indicate that large scale integration of solar energy could be instrumental in decoupling future energy demands from the desired economic growth trends, which ought to be the ultimate objective of future energy policies. Solar technology, is however, still in the developmental stage, which makes projections of its competitiveness and utility in the future too speculative. The lack of actual experiences with long term reliability of solar systems, their operating and maintenance cost, and the absence of data for realistic comparison with other alternate energy systems, are among the constraining factors for pragmatic evaluation of economics. The hereby outlined "economics of solar systems" is, therefore, only an interim effort to stimulate interest in the state-of-the-art application of solar energy for residential space and water heating, and its possible market evolution in the Countries of the European Economic Community (EEC)

Involution of the mouse mammary gland is associated with an immune cascade and an acute-phase response, involving LBP, CD14 and STAT3

INTRODUCTION: Involution of the mammary gland is a complex process of controlled apoptosis and tissue remodelling. The aim of the project was to identify genes that are specifically involved in this process. METHODS: We used Affymetrix oligonucleotide microarrays to perform a detailed transcript analysis on the mechanism of controlled involution after withdrawal of the pups at day seven of lactation. Some of the results were confirmed by semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting or immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: We identified 145 genes that were specifically upregulated during the first 4 days of involution; of these, 49 encoded immunoglobulin genes. A further 12 genes, including those encoding the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), the lipopolysaccharide receptor (CD14) and lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP), were involved in the acute-phase response, demonstrating that the expression of acute-phase response genes can occur in the mammary gland itself and not only in the liver. Expression of LBP and CD14 was upregulated, at both the RNA and protein level, immediately after pup withdrawal; CD14 was strongly expressed in the luminal epithelial cells. Other genes identified suggested neutrophil activation early in involution, followed by macrophage activation late in the process. Immunohistochemistry and histological staining confirmed the infiltration of the involuting mammary tissue with neutrophils, plasma cells, macrophages and eosinophils. CONCLUSION: Oligonucleotide microarrays are a useful tool for identifying genes that are involved in the complex developmental process of mammary gland involution. The genes identified are consistent with an immune cascade, with an early acute-phase response that occurs in the mammary gland itself and resembles a wound healing process

A Bethe-Salpeter model for light mesons: spectra and decays

The spectra and electroweak decay properties of light mesons are analyzed within the framework of the instantaneous Bethe-Salpeter equation. The interaction kernel comprises alternative spin-structures for a parameterization of confinement and a residual quark-antiquark interaction based on instanton effects. It is shown that only with a vector confinement the parameters can be chosen such as to yield an excellent description of the light pseudoscalar and vector mesons including weak and two photon decays. However it is found that it is not possible to reconcile this with the Regge behavior of higher lying meson states with the same parameter set.Comment: 12 pages, RevTeX, TK-93-1

Long-range forecasts of UK winter hydrology

Seasonal river flow forecasts are beneficial for planning agricultural activities, river navigation, and for management of reservoirs for public water supply and hydropower generation. In the United Kingdom (UK), skilful seasonal river flow predictions have previously been limited to catchments in lowland (southern and eastern) regions. Here we show that skilful long-range forecasts of winter flows can now be achieved across the whole of the UK. This is due to a remarkable geographical complementarity between the regional geological and meteorological sources of predictability for river flows. Forecast skill derives from the hydrogeological memory of antecedent conditions in southern and eastern parts of the UK and from meteorological predictability in northern and western areas. Specifically, it is the predictions of the atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic that provides the skill at the seasonal timescale. In addition, significant levels of skill in predicting the frequency of winter high flow events is demonstrated, which has the potential to allow flood adaptation measures to be put in place

Kinetic theory of point vortices: diffusion coefficient and systematic drift

We develop a kinetic theory for point vortices in two-dimensional hydrodynamics. Using standard projection operator technics, we derive a Fokker-Planck equation describing the relaxation of a ``test'' vortex in a bath of ``field'' vortices at statistical equilibrium. The relaxation is due to the combined effect of a diffusion and a drift. The drift is shown to be responsible for the organization of point vortices at negative temperatures. A description that goes beyond the thermal bath approximation is attempted. A new kinetic equation is obtained which respects all conservation laws of the point vortex system and satisfies a H-theorem. Close to equilibrium this equation reduces to the ordinary Fokker-Planck equation.Comment: 50 pages. To appear in Phys. Rev.

On the equivalence between Implicit Regularization and Constrained Differential Renormalization

Constrained Differential Renormalization (CDR) and the constrained version of Implicit Regularization (IR) are two regularization independent techniques that do not rely on dimensional continuation of the space-time. These two methods which have rather distinct basis have been successfully applied to several calculations which show that they can be trusted as practical, symmetry invariant frameworks (gauge and supersymmetry included) in perturbative computations even beyond one-loop order. In this paper, we show the equivalence between these two methods at one-loop order. We show that the configuration space rules of CDR can be mapped into the momentum space procedures of Implicit Regularization, the major principle behind this equivalence being the extension of the properties of regular distributions to the regularized ones.Comment: 16 page

Scaling anomaly in cosmic string background

We show that the classical scale symmetry of a particle moving in cosmic string background is broken upon inequivalent quantization of the classical system, leading to anomaly. The consequence of this anomaly is the formation of single bound state in the coupling interval \gamma\in(-1,1). The inequivalent quantization is characterized by a 1-parameter family of self-adjoint extension parameter \omega. It has been conjectured that the formation of loosely bound state in cosmic string background may lead to the so called anomalous scattering cross section for the particles, which is usually seen in molecular physics.Comment: 4 pages,1 figur